AAFP Sustains Fight to Reduce Administrative Burden for Family Medicine

The AAFP recently ramped up efforts calling for an immediate reduction in the regulatory and administrative requirements family physicians and practices must comply with on a daily basis. These burdens range from onerous documentation guidelines to cumbersome prior authorization criteria and the unrelenting frustrations associated with electronic health records. Among the AAFP’s activities:

In December 2017, the AAFP Board of Directors adopted the AAFP’s own host of principles aimed at reducing the administrative burden weighing down doctors. The four-part "Principles for Administrative Simplification" covers prior authorization, quality measure harmonization, certification and documentation of medical services and supplies, and medical record documentation.

On October 26, 2017, AAFP President Michael Munger, MD, traveled to Washington, DC, to participate in a roundtable discussion hosted by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator, Seema Verma. Dr. Munger delivered to CMS three administrative reform recommendations for consideration: elimination/reduction of prior authorizations for certain drugs and supplies for established patients; elimination of documentation guidelines for E/M codes for primary care physicians; and repeal of the regulatory framework of the advancing care information requirements under MACRA.
In early 2017, the AAFP published its Agenda for Regulatory and Administrative Reforms. Family physicians are concerned with the ever increasing number of administrative requirements that detract from time that would be better spent on patient care. Studies have estimated that primary care physicians spend nearly 50 percent of their time on overly cumbersome administrative tasks, such as:

Prior Authorizations

Performance Measures and Reporting

Electronic Health Record Documentation

Care Management Documentation

Prior authorizations top the list of physician complaints about administrative burden. On January 25, 2017, the AAFP and a coalition of 16 other medical organizations called for the reform of prior authorization and utilization management requirements that bog down physicians and impede patient care. Through its "Prior Authorization and Utilization Management Reform Principles(www.ama-assn.org)," the coalition is "urging health insurers and others to apply the reform principles and streamline requirements, lengthy assessments and inconsistent rules in current prior authorization programs."

In an April 26, 2017 letter from the AAFP to CMS Administrator, Seema Verma, the AAFP notes its support of President Trump’s executive order, Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs, but calls for CMS to step back and reconsider the current approaches to the Medicare Access and CHIP reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), which we view as overly complex and burdensome to physicians.

In a May 11, 2017 joint letter to CMS Administrator, Seema Verma, the AAFP and a long list of other medical specialty organizations expressed concerns over the agency’s planned enactment of the Social Security Number Removal Initiative. While supportive of the need to protect seniors from identity theft, the signatories called for the change to be made through the traditional notice and comment rulemaking process so that valuable industry feedback may be considered. In addition, the signatories asked that CMS develop a mechanism for providers to quickly and securely access Medicare beneficiary identification numbers to avoid back-office billing headaches and disruptions in access to care for patients.

In a June 8, 2017 letter from the AAFP to CMS Administrator, Seema Verma, the AAFP weighed in on the 2018 Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment proposed rule as published in the April 28 Federal Register. The AAFP expressed a mixture of praise and concern regarding the alignment and simplification of various reporting requirements, as well as ongoing concerns about the readiness of 2015 edition certified EHR technology for 2018 reporting. In addition, the AAFP reminded CMS that the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act was intended to simplify Medicare payment, quality improvement and performance measurement programs, rather than introduce new and cumbersome administrative requirements for physicians that do not improve patient care.